Trigger Happy TV

Ive looked at all of the things people want me to do in public and have realised that I would be completing tasks similar to them done by Dom Joly on Trigger Happy TV. For those of you who haven't seen this program, it's him roaming around doing inappropriate things in public. It's a very funny program, here are some links to some of the stuff he's done and what ill be doing myself in a while! Unfortunately...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gyWVodZm5c&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjxwXaE5EpE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_vULnoDRfo&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_mO_QNeyfk&feature=endscreen&NR=1

I'm not looking forwards to doing stuff like this at all, I'm going to get asked to move, asked to leave, told off, shouted at, stared at and I'm pretty sure lots of old people will give me the 'I hate youths' look.

Someone elses opinion

I asked my friend Janine how she would feel taking the photos of me acting stupid and doing inappropriate things in public, I wanted to know if she'd feel uncomfortable, embarrassed or just find it funny and her first reply was:

''I knew Toni would ask me to be the photographer because I am amazing :D Without me Toni would surely have died, or something. I am the reason she is where she is today and any future success is all down to me but do I take credit for this, nope. Do you know why? Because I’m an amazing friend and all round person. I’m sure you will all be wetting yourself in excitement to see my work in a few days and I hope you consider yourself privileged to get the chance to view such work of arts (that’s if your eyes don’t burst from astonishment.)
The one and only ‘Janine the amazing’''

It did make me laugh but on a more serious note she then said:

''The main reason I agreed to do this was because I get the chance to laugh at Toni while she humiliates herself. Although I’m pretty sure there will be allot of laughter (mainly from me) we will take it seriously to get the tasks done. I’m glad that I’m the one behind the camera and not having to actually do these things; I’m sure though with some courage Toni will successfully manage to do these tasks. I’m not sure how I will feel taking photos, it depends on what the tasks entail and how many people stare. I can say that I am looking forward to thee ‘Toni looks like an idiot doing things in public’ day and hope that I don’t let her down and manage to capture these acts well.''

After finding out how funny Janine will find this, it hasn't filt me with any confidence but I'm sure no matter how ridiculas I will look and feel, we will look back on this rather embarrassing event and laugh!

Need some inspiration

I have my plan sorted to go into Manchester and do the inapproriate things in public but I'm hoping something will inspire me for me to be able to develop this idea further, as of now I know I want to merge the use of objects and inappropriate behaviour. The objects come from the series of work called 'One Minute Sculptures' by Erwin Wurm, It's his most well known series and intrests me very much so these are my reasons for wanting to use the idea. I can't think of any ways I can merge inappropriate behaviour and objects together without simply just doing inappropriate things with objects... and I think this is too much of an obvious approach to take so I shan't be following this route for too long. I will have a play about with consiquences of inappropriate behaviour by using objects as the subject matter, some how. I like the idea of the object being the subject, and it itself is completing the inappropriate task for example 'a stereo in a library' or 'a mobile phone in school'.

Inappropriate behaviour in public - date chosen

I am dreading going into manchester city centre and posing for photos while completing inappropriate tasks. I'm not only worred about it being INCREDIBLY embarrassing but also since these tasks have to show inappropriateness, I don't want anyone to think I'm rude and inappropriate! Some of the responces from people on my little questionnaires asking them what they think would be inappropriate are more silly and funny rather than inappropriate, I think this is because ive given them an opportunity to tell me what to do in public, I myself would also try to come up with something for the person to do which would make me laugh! I will try and complete not only the inappropriate acts but also the silly and funnier ones. I keep putting this trip off because I know how horrible it will be doing all of these things so ive set a date and will stick to it! The 4th of january will be the dreaded 'Toni looks like an idiot doing these things in public' day. Ive asked my friend janine if she will take the photos for me, she is really good at photography and knows her way around a camera. I wonder how janine will feel when taking the photos, even though she isn't taking part as a subject, she still has to stand with me while I act like a buffoon.

Yolanda Dominguez

Yolanda Dominguez is a Spanish artist who works with sensitive topics and sometimes ones that we find disturbing. One of her series of works entitles 'Poses' inspired me. 'Poses' is a performance/sculpture/photography like series where Dominguez gets women to stand in a certain way in public for a certain amount of time. The positions she gets them to stand in reflect the positions that models stand in. This series is a criticism of the artificial world of glamour that magazines present. It's mocking the highly edited image that the models are presented like. Dominguez uses real woman of different sizes to show that the way woman are shown in magazines is a far from realistic way. her aim was to make it clear how ''ridiculas, and at times harmful, it can be to follow models that the world of glamour impose on us.'' The photos shown down the left side are the photos of models from magazines and the photos down the right side are photos of Dominguez's models re-creating the magazine images.



Another approach on Wurms work

I knew what my 'inappropriate behaviour in public' photos would look like and struggled to think up a way to develop these images so I resorted back to emmulating another series of work by Erwin Wurm hoping that this would give me some ideas to develop my work. Wurms most famous and most interesting series is his 'One minute sculptures' so it only made sense to have a crack at doing some of these. I got my dad to take photos of me in particular poses with certain objects.

These photos aren't flattering in the slightest but they aren't supposed to be. I'm supposed to look uncomfortable and awkward because the models in the work of which im emmulating are stood in uncomfortable and awkward positions. I used a litle digital camera to capture these images just because they're rough drafts and by far nothing final. I thought carefully about what objects to use, I didn't want any old thing and once I got thinking I came up with loads of ideas really quick. The objects I chose to pose with have a meaning to the way I'm posing with them which shows my relationship with these objects. I think the poses in relation to the objects chosen are self explanitary, I maybe need to take more of an ambiguous approach if I decide to take this idea further. I like these photos very much even though I do look like a weirdo! I like the positioning of the objects and my expressionless face. I might use the idea of showing the relationship between us and the objects which surround us and merge this with the idea of inappropriate behaviour, so I best get my thinking cap on and come up with something interesting and original!

Inappropriate behaviour in public

After realising that members of the public wouldn't give me a wide enough range of photos of them completing inappropriate acts infront of other members of public, I came up with the idea of asking them what they thought would be inappropriate then me having my photo taken whilst doing them poses. I created a questionnaire to make it easy and quick to get results.

I walked around Manchester stopping people of different ages and asked them if they wouldn't mind filling one of these out. Every person I asked said yes so I knew this was a sucessful way to get some results! I will total my results to see which inappropriate acts were most commenly mentioned then I will get someone to take photos of my doing these things in public capturing me and the public reactions. I'm hoping I don't get too embarrassed and end up not doing anything, maybe a bit of dutch courage will be needed for this one!!!

My take on 'Instructions for Idleness'

I am constantly developing the idea of 'inappropriate behaviour in public' but am also very interested in other aspects of Wurms work so am still experimenting with a few of these. It's not often I find an artist of which I like the consept and look of the work they do, nevermind the fact of liking more than one series they have done but Wurm has struck me as an artist who knows what he wants to put across and does this very well. Most of his work has tints of something which I often find in my own work. I like to look at the world and produce work in a way to change something or show faults in society, just like he does. I took some photos in the style of his series of work 'Instructions for Idleness' because I like the possible reasonning behind these images he did as well as the overall look.

I set the camera on timer and ran and formed a very spontaneous position, I didn't plan any of these poses before hand so had less than 6 seconds to come up with a position and get into it. My rushed routine to capture these photos proved successful because I am happy with these photos, especially the 'have messy hair' one because of the lack of lighting and very realistic acting. These photos suggest we are a world of imperfections and it doesn't matter that this is what we are, It's ok to not look your best, it's ok to act in a selfish way sometimes, we don't always have to be the best at everything, just be who you are and do what you want within reason. People do things like ive shown in these images all the time, it shows we are all equal, nobody better, nobody worse. I hid parts of my face on purpose to show that it could have been anyone in the pictures giving them the sense that we are all the same and all do these things. As of now i'm not going to develop these photos further just because I need to focus on one series rather than every one that interests me and the other I have more ideas for another than what I do for this one.

Erwin Wurm - 'Instructions for Idleness'

I looked at this series entitled 'Instructions for Idleness' by Erwin Wurm at the start of this assignment and since the first sighting, the idea has been stuck with me. These photos are of Wurm himself showing different acts of idleness which most of us do a lot of the time. I like these the text on the photos because it's telling the viewer what is happeneing in the photo in a kind of patronising way. It's as though he's telling the world that they aren't any better than he is or better than anyone else. Ive always liked the idea of expressing my dislikes of society in a visual way so was keen to do this using this approach.

My Erwin Wurm approach attempt 2

I returned to manchester with in mind that I had no choice but to ask people if I could take a photo of them doing something which they feel would be an inappropriate act to perform in public. I stood in a spot where hundreds of people passed me from each direction to give me more opportunities and I tryed to look for people who looked nice enough to say yes. The first person who I stopped was a middle aged woman, I said ''Hi, I'm a student from Salford uni, I'm doing a photography project on 'People in places' (that was the only thing I could think of to keep her engaged), Would you mind if I took a photo of you? I also have a slightly strange request, please could you do something which you think is inappropriate to do in public?'' the woman looked at me in a puzzled way and said ''like what?'' I told her I couldn't suggest things because the whole point was to see what other people classed as inapproproate and after she asked me a million times ''What will this photo be used for?'' and I replied ''It's just my uni work, thats all'' she finally looked into the camera and stuck her tongue out.

I was really nervous of the settings of the camera not being right, even though I had taken some quick practice shots of manchester to set them how I wanted, I still had a short burst of fear after every photo I took of a willing stranger as a subject because I knew I only had one shot. After I took this photo I had an upgrade in confidence because she was the first one and she said yes! My luck ran out quicker than it took to take the photo! After this photo I must have stopped around 30 people and every single one of them said no, but did I give up? NO, I asked a few more and slowly people said yes but it still wasn't enough so I thought it was time to change my appraoch to Wurms work. Not only was it the fact that people didn't want their photo taken, another contibuting factor to my giving up on this approach was that everyone who did say yes only felt comfortable enough to pull a face at the camera.

The lady above took her tooth out, which was quite a surprise and told me to hurry and take the photo. I was very grateful to her because she did something she didn't feel comfortable doing just for the benefit of my work. After she did this she said ''wait there''... so I did and then she came back with her friend and asked said ''get your camera ready'', I was a little nervous as to what they would do but was soon put at ease by the signt of this:

I found this trip to Manchester to be very successful, not because it gave me a lot of photos, because it didn't. It was a beneficial trip because it showed me that the direction I was taking was the wrong one. Most people don't like their photo to be taken, especially off a young overly excited stranger in the middle of a busy road in Manchester and even the ones who didn't mind their photo being taken, their reactions to my bizarre request left them with a hard task of thinking of something inappropriate then the even harder task of making a fool of themselves to complete this task resulting in 'not so embarrassing or inappropriate' facial expressions. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get a massive range of photos of different people doing different things because when I set out to do this, I did think I would get a lot of photos of different things, I had images in my mind of young thug like teens swearing into the camera, old ladies pulling faces, young children fake fighting with their siblings and middle aged men throwing little. I didn't need to sit down to plan and think about another way to tackle this 'being inappropriate' in public, some how it came to me right away once I knew i needed another approach. I had the idea of just asking people to write down what they think would be an inappropriate thing to do in public then I re-create this act within a public space; this way I get a range of different inappropriate scenarios and someone willing to perform them.